Waimea Bay, right? Or Jaws, or Phantoms, or some other reef off the North Shore?

No. Guess again.

These photos were taken on the French Coast in 2002, at Belharra Reef, when a "prefect storm" in the Atlantic sent this enormous swell smack into France. The Frenchman rdiing them in the photos were all unknowns, but these are some of the biggest waves ever ridden outside the North Shore.

I love these photos. They remind me of growing up in Swansea.

sufi

06-12-2004, 06:16 PM

Aye me gnarly hearties

i learnt a lickle bit of surfing down west wales meself, in lovely pembrokeshire:
http://euroshots.com/Landscapes/Renny%20Slip.jpg with Mike 'the wind' a strangely lyrical windsurfing champion, who could tell which way the wind was blowing from the shapes of the ripples on the sea.

what lickle skills i gleaned were sorely tested here, which i can exclusively predict will be nex year's destination on the aloha honalulu rountheworld surf-bum tour:
http://www.supertubes.co.za/advertisers/trueblue/Photos/venombay4.jpg
fort dauphin, south tip of madagascar, where the antartic ocean meets the indian ocean and the mozambique canal about 10 days on public transport from the capital through roadless hills, forest, desert, mountains etc...

seems like things have developed since then - there are surf lodges and shit, back then there were ony 2 surfboards in the City (& one was snapped in 1/2), owned by guy, a rasta who hung out at the ecole des jeunes filles and was coincidentally our main contact for jamala...

so with guy & my old mucka bob, (who looked the part in torn up old jeans, 1/2 a bad brains hoody and straggling barnet and beard & was known as jesosy by all malagasy & sundry) we clambered down a shit strewn cliff on the edge of town to the beach.
it seems (from swift research on the webber) that this beach is known as Venom Bay, however we didn't know that at the time.
anyway, i got in there as surf was up got dumped mercilessly and was lucky to get away with a shiner not a broken neck..

i also got sunburnt on malibu beach, but that's another boring surfing tale.....

nick.K

07-12-2004, 12:42 AM

we used to drive out to the gower on the weekends, driving past port talbot at night, which is like riding a concrete ribbon over the opening titles of blade runner. down at the beach we'd play, adventure, collect wood and get lost, then light fires, eat well and play footie when the logs had burnt down to glowing balls. there's nothing like playing kick-up alone with a fire ball at night. of course these hor d'oeuvres couldn't compare to the main event: watching the sun rise along the coast. let's hope no one else finds out about it.

i'd do it again. anytime

sufi

07-12-2004, 11:43 AM

Aye shiver me timbers and pass me scrimshaw - west wales posse

er i wuz never rilly that much of a sufrer olly - y'know i just idolised the lifestyle ;) & not to mention being on the wrong side of the severn

mind you i always kinda fancied to ride the bore (http://www.boreriders.com/Severn_Archives2.html).....

So Laird's Tahiti wave (above) ends the film and it's even sicker when you see the thing in motion.

After 2 hours of men toppling down 50-100ft wave faces, the "holy fuck" factor begins the wane, until you see this one.

Also: beautfiul 8mm footage of Greg Noll and his mates tackling Waimea Bay for the first time in the 50s with a demented noncholance, and stealing pineapples and catching big fish because they didn't have any money and there were no shops there anyway then: a virgin North Shore. Noll's photos and recollections of the 1969 '100 yr Storm' AND his insane, legendary wave at Pipeline's second reef ON FILM!!!!

Jeff Clark at Mavericks off Northern California, a reef he surfed alone for 15 years, because nobody would believe him when he said it was there.

Superb!

craner

10-12-2004, 10:50 AM

More vortex than wave.

<img src="http://www.echonews.com/909/images/surf_film_festival.jpg">

I hate surfers, though.

nick.K

10-12-2004, 11:57 AM

surfers in my experience = bad news: passive aggressive, narcissistic, territorial, just leave 'em be. the actual surfing experience is up there with skateboarding, but it's not really possible to do it in London. I'll stick to watching crystal voyager (http://www.felixonline.co.uk/2002-04/article.php?aid=780)

craner

14-12-2004, 12:01 AM

To get back to Laird's Tahiti wave. I'm transfixed by it. As was everyone when the photos came out. I think every surf rag that month ran the pictures. One cover simply ran a photo with the headline: "Oh. My. God."

Greg Noll in the film, who calls Laird the greatest big wave surfer ever, when, really, he is, said "I saw it and said, no way, that shit's impossible"

Because it's a freak wave. It's not meant to be surfed. If you're fit enough, and surfing Waimea 20 ft +, you can generally survive if you wipe out. Mavericks too, but that's harder, because of the jagged rocks and the cliff face that the gigantic waves run into. Mark Foo died there, remember.

But the Tahiti break, at that size, is a killer. Fall off, you die. However massive you are, your bones break like twigs. A lot of surfers have died there.

It took a while for Laird to recover. There's footage of him sitting on the jet ski after that wave, in tears. Apparently, for weeks after, he talked in an edgy 'anger management' style whisper.

yep newquay. i was down there a few weeks ago for my sisters wedding and it was horrible horrible there, altho the wedding was lovely.
blissblogger wrote in his second to latest entry about englanders creating their own bit of sunshine, the design or rather look of places like newquay is a prime example of just how desperate people are to do this, and how badly they fail.
"i'm just painting the clouds with sunshine"
30 feet clean breaks get put into perspective by the 'asian tsunami' though eh?
the planet reconfigures itself from the inside, and wipes out population and animals.
simple as that.

mms

27-12-2004, 01:10 PM

surfers in my experience = bad news: passive aggressive, narcissistic, territorial, just leave 'em be. the actual surfing experience is up there with skateboarding, but it's not really possible to do it in London. I'll stick to watching crystal voyager (http://www.felixonline.co.uk/2002-04/article.php?aid=780)

too right, at sixthform you could draw lines where different groups of surfers from different towns sat, aggie lot there, porthtowan there, perranporth etc, and the girls that flocked around them, and they had nothing interesting to say, they all just sat and looked over at each other.
i was too far from the coast and too skint and skinny to do that stuff too much, spent all my cash on records anyway, and skated, which was the scuzzy, rejecting the spiritual vibe thing version, much more practical and hardline.
Surfers ruined every party that might possibly be great with that fkin blood sugar sex album.

do you know what the experience of skating compared to snowboarding is, i really want to do that cos apparently you can get alot of speed up and one of the things i really liked about skating was maximum speed.

craner

27-12-2004, 05:04 PM

The first reactions of most surfers to Asia's tsunamis would be "how big are they?" and "are they ridable?"

I'm not joking. That is their perspective.

originaldrum

28-12-2004, 12:20 AM

the thing i noticed about the waves in thailand was that they were not so big (think hollywood movie, or bollywood even) , but there was so many of them , kind of like a whole bunch a medium sized waves, and like the tide was coming in real quick, real quick.

the smell is supposed to be attrocious, dead cats n dogs , and humans all mixed together, a nasty brew if you ask me...

Woebot

30-12-2004, 04:11 PM

the thing i noticed about the waves in thailand was that they were not so big (think hollywood movie, or bollywood even) , but there was so many of them , kind of like a whole bunch a medium sized waves, and like the tide was coming in real quick, real quick.

the smell is supposed to be attrocious, dead cats n dogs , and humans all mixed together, a nasty brew if you ask me...

got a text message from my friend joe who is in thailand at the moment and who i've been working with over the past month. his hotel was destroyed and he had to run from the waves!!! c.fifty died. he'd got up late and missed the boat to koh pi pi where hundreds died.

whats the death toll now 100,000. its just absolutely mental. gonna dig deep and cough up a few bob. ive been to those beaches in thailand and theyre lovely. what did the us govt give? 35 million! laughable! itd buy a hotel!!!

nomos

30-12-2004, 05:02 PM

gonna dig deep and cough up a few bob.
We just did the same. It's easy to donate online.

well let's hope negatives can create positives, but i'm particulary worried about the potential for the spread of viruses, there was alot of worry about the asian superbug coming thru this year, its much more possible now. terrifying.
but the british people have dug deep of course, generous bunch really, deeper than their governments anyway.

Backjob

05-01-2005, 08:48 AM

Here in singapore you can make your donation through the atm machine - genius idea! It's impossible to withdraw 500 dollars to spend on yourself and NOT give at least an equal amount to the tsunami appeal...

polystyle desu

05-01-2005, 09:02 PM

The scale of this disaster is overwelming ...
One story i rd yesterday from the Maldives was from a man who saw the high water keep rising until it was
at his chin , at that moment all of the Maldives Islands were a few feet underwater ...
Luckily for those who survived there , that particular wave of water didn't get higher

We also had friends there when it hit ,
again luckily they were on the other side of Thailand .
'
Was glad to hear today they got one of those stranded dolphins back into the ocean ,
the calf didn't make it through .
They'd both been tossed by the wave inland into backed up lagoon filled with bodies , trash , sharp metal

And well yeah , the Phi Phi Islands were a refuge -sanctuary for us too at one point a few years ago .
Fantastic place , very easy vibes there ...

What's happened boggled mind and body
even the planet wobbled

craner

06-01-2005, 10:46 AM

http://www.acheh-eye.org/

My heart breaks for Aceh. So much for their fight for independence: even the sea sides against them.

mms

06-01-2005, 05:55 PM

i was in the maldives 2003 b4 christmas, beautiful place and lovely people, very fishlike, they catch other fish using tuna which is very expensive in europe of course.
there are loads of fish it's a wonderland just under the surface of the water.

one funny think i kept noticing was round discs that looked alot like little tiles from a swimming pool washing up on the shore.
this of course pricked my curiosity and i found out that every 10 years people bid off the government for lease of an island, the winner then has to demolish all the buildings and start again for the next 10 years. the discs were remnants of the pervious incarnation of the island.
it makes me feel really sad that island is probably destroyed and all the lovely people on it could be dead. :(

sufi

07-01-2005, 11:56 AM

it makes me feel really sad that island is probably destroyed and all the lovely people on it could be dead. i know how you feel, from somalia, then from darfur - it's a terrible feeling of dislocation... :(

the whole comparison i made btwn war expenses & relief, felt somehow uncomfortable; ugly or inappropriate, but i'm glad to see that some others (http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news479.htm) have picked it up

http://www.schnews.org.uk/images/479.gif

Gerard

09-01-2005, 05:39 PM

the whole comparison i made btwn war expenses & relief, felt somehow uncomfortable; ugly or inappropriate, but i'm glad to see that some others (http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news479.htm) have picked it up

Nothing inapt. about it, the bottom line is alliance govts. have forked out so much to invade and then occupy Iraq the coffers must be unusually empty...

jimet

12-01-2005, 11:52 AM

To go back to surfing (cos, really, there's nothing more to say about what happened in Asia. It's too big to engage with), this

<i>I hate surfers, though. Surf culture is really dismal. You know, they have this great lifestyle, and they ruin it by wearing terrible shorts and listening to rubbish like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and acting like skate-brats. Surfers laugh at people who are learning to surf, as if they stepped out from the womb and stood up on a surfboard in a 10 foot swell. They have no manners. And no style. There are civlized, smart surfers, who live enviable lives. But they're not in the majority. </i>

Reminds me of a theory I always had - if there's ever a new Hemingway he'll be a surfer.

sufi

12-01-2005, 12:46 PM

jus looking back to olly's comments on surfers attitude to the tsunami...
while i was looking for canadian beer pictures, i came across this blog (?) (http://members.shaw.ca/ana_the_great/currentframes.htm) from tofino in BC, a lovely surfer town where i was this summer,

First of all, I would like to, in some cynical way, thank the higher power for the catastrophic tsunami that hit the islands on Boxing Day. Don't get me wrong, it would of been way better if it never happened, but in some ways, it is about fucken time that the Americans now have no reason to bitch about the 300 people they lost well over three years ago. 300 people is nothing compared to well over 100,000 people...who were already living in poverty. So stop your bitching already. I am sick of hearing the 9/11 attack, and the 'victims' of 9/11. get over yourselves. You have no rights to bitch anymore, especially since you re-elected the idiot who has done nothing to go after the terrorists who gave you reason to bitch in the first place. And then you have all these charities cry out for help and aid, and everything in me wants to help, but I want to make sure what I give goes to where it should be going. After the whole 9/11 incident, I have been very weary of when and whom I donate too. I don't think a dime of my money should of in any way, shape, or form gone anywhere else except for medical supplies that were needed those first days in New York.

I like the word bitch today!not quite as callous as wot olly said but totally feckin hatstand nonetheless :D

(check the rest of the site ol - you will wince & cringe)

nomos

12-01-2005, 02:37 PM

December 13,2004: I just had great sex with Gord.

December 10,2004: Have to take the kiddo to the dentist in about ten minutes. Little does he know how ruthless dentist's really are.
:eek:

Helen

13-04-2005, 04:40 AM

'Taken by Phillipe Lijour, the first mate of the super-tanker <i>Esso Languedoc</i>, during a storm off Durban, South Africa in 1980, the photo records a wall of water the size of an eight-storey building crashing over the deck of the ship. (For reference, the mast seen at the back of the photo stands 25 meters above mean sea level). While it was long understood that extraordinarily severe weather conditions or certain geological phenomena like undersea earthquakes could produce waves of enormous size, neither of these conditions were present when the wave that hit the <i>Esso Languedoc</i> occurred. In fact, the mean wave height at the time was only 5 to 10 meters. According to the longstanding method of ocean wave forecasting known as the Linear Model, the emergence of such a monster wave from this type of overall sea state could be expected to occur only once every 10,000 years.'
(-Jeffrey Kastner, from <i>Cabinet</i> Magazine, Issue 16, 'The Sea'.

rewch

16-05-2005, 01:53 PM

just had to do a delivery trip from chichester to the clyde estuary & was waylaid by a nasty irish sea/st. george's channel storm to the west of anglesea of force 8 gusting 9... didn't have to deal with any waves quite like that but had several of 30-40 feet with nasty breakers on top... at holy island (entrance to port of holy head at north end of anglesea) with wind against tide saw some even bigger monsters... eek! didn't tell the rest of the crew but about half way through the 14 hour gale i remembered the words of a scottish fisherman & sailor who was vastly experienced to the effect that 'the only time i have been scared sailing was in mountainous seas off anglesea'... the rest of the crew thanked me later for keeping that bit of info to myself... every inch of every coast of anglesea is littered with wrecks

Yeah, "riding giants" was great for the big waves, absolutely insane stuff. But i find all the pseudo-spiritual uplifting bullshit really hard to take. same with "endless summer" (the surf movie, not the beach boys album, of course!). Which is kinda weird cuz I agree with what's been said above about surf culture, essentially just jocks on waves (same with snowboard culture...jocks on hills), so I'm not really sure where the new-wave hippie crap comes from...

That said, i LOVE surfing, even though I'm pretty terrible at it. I try and make it out to tofino, on the west coast of vancouver island at least a couple times a summer. camping + surfing is definitely the life. and speaking of surf culture, how much better was surf culture in the 50's?? I'm telling you, nothing gets you pumped up for surfing more than blaring the beach boys as loud as possible as you're driving to the beach. I long for the days where it was all about riding the nose and beach parties with jane fonda ;)

Oh yeah, and to counter sufi's posted tofino blog, you should check out the blog by Ralf (http://www.longbeachsurfshop.com/tofinoblog/) (or as my friends say "RRRRRRRRALF"), the Slayer-loving owner of tofino's only surf board & record store, a dirty old hippie of the trully great variety. I just found this and i'm now totally happy thinking about surfing again... :) :D

craner

20-02-2007, 09:50 PM

Yes, I agree, the Spiritual Surfer schtick is painful. There are two great contra examples though.

1. Knoll in Riding Giants. He's, what, in his 50s. He compares Waimea to a past lover (he was her best, of course). And says something like, "I went out there a couple of years ago, for old times sake. There were a lot of hot young guys riding her, doing stuff I could never have done. But, you know, I got the feeling she recognised me. And she winked at me. She remembered." Wasn't that lovely? No "spiritual" shit there!

2. As "spiritualism" always going to its sinsiter side, which is inevitable (in my opinion): Surf Nazi Brody in Point Break with his disciples. "...and your balls are THIS big, man..."

The great ridiculous Spiritual Surfer scenes occur in the lamest Surfing film ever: North Shore. Who's seen that?

I have to say, though, that I do LOVE Big Wednesday. Particuarly because of Gary Busey, Patti D'arbanville, and Waxer at Bear's wedding. Beautiful stuff.

craner

20-02-2007, 09:54 PM

Also, without wishing to emphasise the point, I'd seen Laird's Teahapoo wave in pictures well before watching Riding Giants. But to see it in motion, on screen, wide screen...well, you can understand why the man who pioneered Jaws like eating breakfast almost had a nervous breakdown after surviving that one. As I said, it was shocking. No mere bungee jump.

craner

06-03-2007, 10:33 PM

Treat yourself. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK-Yb4gyRNc&NR)

craner

06-03-2007, 10:36 PM

Now this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-GMUWapvA&NR) makes it look easy.

craner

06-03-2007, 10:41 PM

is a very bad idea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z12pEG2aAeA&mode=related&search=)...

Interesting that wave looks very solid and powerful but nothing like the size of some of the Hawaian waves.

What's so special about it? "Laird's anger management whisper' et al?

Dial

25-10-2007, 05:32 AM

To get back to Laird's Tahiti wave. I'm transfixed by it. As was everyone when the photos came out. I think every surf rag that month ran the pictures. One cover simply ran a photo with the headline: "Oh. My. God."

Greg Noll in the film, who calls Laird the greatest big wave surfer ever, when, really, he is, said "I saw it and said, no way, that shit's impossible"

Because it's a freak wave. It's not meant to be surfed. If you're fit enough, and surfing Waimea 20 ft +, you can generally survive if you wipe out. Mavericks too, but that's harder, because of the jagged rocks and the cliff face that the gigantic waves run into. Mark Foo died there, remember.

But the Tahiti break, at that size, is a killer. Fall off, you die. However massive you are, your bones break like twigs. A lot of surfers have died there.

It took a while for Laird to recover. There's footage of him sitting on the jet ski after that wave, in tears. Apparently, for weeks after, he talked in an edgy 'anger management' style whisper.

And thus does history repeat itself. (the 'talking to myself', that is)

Anyway this post is what my ??? above was all about.

Its all to do with the break innit? Meaning there's something particularly dangerous about this one that makes a wave dangerous. But what???

Give me a few more days and I'll be back with the answer.

I could run with with this auto-response and start flattering myself outrageously. Or construct elaborate arguments and ultimately win with a brilliant combination of know-how and wit.

The pleasure of self-pleasure!

HMGovt

25-10-2007, 08:57 AM

The suggestion on Riding Giants was that the entire Pacific Ocean is behind that wave (that's why it's so dark and blue), and all that mass is moving fast, so fast and close that his right hand is touching the wave for balance, rather than his left, which you'd expect.

Dial

25-10-2007, 11:16 PM

The suggestion on Riding Giants was that the entire Pacific Ocean is behind that wave (that's why it's so dark and blue), and all that mass is moving fast, so fast and close that his right hand is touching the wave for balance, rather than his left, which you'd expect.

Hmm, all of what you say makes sense until you try and think just exactly what it means. 'The entire Pacific Ocean is behind that wave': So too the Haiwaian waves build their size and strength by being able to travel vast distances unimpeded across the Pacific. And are you sure about that right hand as balance? One it doesn't actually look like he is touching the wave with it. And two, think about the mechanics of travelling down/across a wave.The wave is travelling forward, and you with it. How would using your trailing right hand to touch the wave - effectively corkscrewing your body in a clockwise motion back and around into the wave - help you. I can't picture it.

Anyway its all by the by. The wave looks deep, blue and powerful. Theres something coiled and compact about it coupled with real size, that makes it look quite alive and lethal . By comparison the really big Hawaian waves appear sprawling and lacking in density and focus. A throw rather than a punch. (Reaching for comparisons here)

HMGovt

26-10-2007, 12:33 PM

Here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcaZarxilJQ

Dial

26-10-2007, 11:49 PM

Ah, I get it now. Holy shit. Thanks for that.

Here's a different sort of wave that I can't resist posting for sheer wtfness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nS_aR8XX_U

craner

28-02-2008, 01:13 AM

Not enough love for Mavericks on this thread. The big wave connoisseur's big wave. The big wave that whacked Mark Foo on his first trip out (boo!). The big American big wave, that just shouldn't have been there.

Sharks and freezing water and giant rip tides and huge jagged rocks and HORRENDOUS wipeouts...the old skool North Shore veterans couldn't handle it when it was finally 'discovered' in 1990.

BBC World's running a show called King Tide in about 5 minutes. It's about Tuvalu on the brink of getting washed over.

heroesandvillains

17-04-2008, 07:46 PM

Shane Dorian captures Global Big Wave "ride of the year"
Teahupoo again...seems like a nasty ending to the ride though

Videos here (http://www.billabongxxl.com/roty_nominee/index3.html)

and also there was an award for world record biggest wave, a 70ft...

bunch of videos (http://www.billabongxxl.com/biggestwave_nominee/index1.html) on that site of the nominees too

craner

10-12-2008, 06:43 PM

I was flicking through a surfing magazine on the weekend and came across an amazing article about the new surfing avant garde that's mutated off the coast of Australia: death slab surfing. It's a sick offshoot of Laird Hamilton's Teahupoo and outer reef tow-in antics during the first half of the decade. These Ozzie headbangers basically take Laird's example and apply it to the thickest, ugliest waves they can find. I can't remember any of the breaks off hand, but I'll have a dig around, see what I can find. The photos in the magazine are astonishing. Basically, it's not all about height any longer: it's about volume, density, weight, e.g.:

http://www.surfersvillage.com/img/st/2307_4_T1H5958-1.jpg

http://www.surfersvillage.com/img/st/2307_1_T1H5941.jpg

http://www.surfersvillage.com/img/st/2307_9__T1H5953.jpg

http://www.surfersvillage.com/img/st/2307_2_T1H5945.jpg

Of course, most folks would look at that and go, "yeah, yeah, macho bullshit," but I think it's a rather beautiful way to risk your life.

Found accidentally while searching for Justen 'Jughead' Allport at Shipsterns.

craner

14-12-2008, 03:26 AM

Just remembered that, of course, I started this thread with Belharra Reef. Obviously where it goes off in Europe. Myself? I surfed a lot between the age of 12 and 18, when I lived 5 minutes from Langland Bay. I was never very good, but I could catch a wave, and went out a number of times in big conditions at Llangenith, Gower. So I can say that catching a wave that's even one foot above your height (7ft, say) is terrifying, and exhilirating. None of us can imagine what its like to catch a wave of the freak magnitude. I admire those who do beacuse they enrich and expand the experience of mankind, and mankind mostly knows nothing about it. Big wave surfing is useless, and noble and beautiful.

Odd to see this thread resurface - I was reading about this the other day. Waves rated due to the sheer weight of water that collapses over your head rather than their height.

I think the most notorious waves like this are called "Cyclops" and "Shipsterns". I know nothing about surfing though.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vGF_b1cYmF8

There's footage of someone surfing Shipsterns and he has to jump another mini-wave in the middle of the main wave as the sea seems to drain from under him. It's mind-boggling.

Here it is - first entry:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=q-MPHrfHpc0

craner

15-12-2008, 12:13 AM

Yes, Shipsterns seems to be the place, but there are other Oz reefs too. Shit, must find that magazine again...

heroesandvillains

15-12-2008, 12:57 AM

I can honestly say I've never seen anyone jump a wave within a wave...that's some serious shit.:confused::eek:

craner

26-04-2009, 04:13 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/freakwavetrans.shtml

NARRATOR: But the Caledonian Star was lucky. Her engines were still working. The crew boarded up the windows and eventually the ship limped back to port, but another ship out at sea at that time was less fortunate. The Bremen was a German cruise liner. Again she was built to withstand anything the South Atlantic could throw at her. On board were 137 tourists. They too were hit by a giant 30m wave which devastated the bridge.

NARRATOR: Everything including radar equipment, weather faxes, ventilator, alarms, everything malfunctioned. All the instruments short-circuited, the steering gear failed completely. The ship was in distress, not manoeuvrable, but unlike the Caledonian Star the Bremen also lost her engines. The ship and all on board were now in desperate trouble. Unable to power her way through the sea the ship drifted side on to the waves exposing her weakest parts.

REINHARD FISCH (Chief Engineer MS Bremen): When the engine failed the ship lay transversely to the sea and the sea rolled crossways to the ship against the big windows of the restaurant.

NARRATOR: This was the worst situation possible. The restaurant windows are extremely weak. If they were hit by any large wave water would flood in and the ship would sink.

REINHARD FISCH (WITH TRANSLATION): We would have capsized. It would have broken through or smashed the windows.

NARRATOR: It was now a race against time. To turn the ship away from the waves they desperately needed to restart the engine, but the starter generator was in pieces on the floor. If they couldn't start the engine the ship and everyone on her was doomed.

REINHARD FISCH: We came from the Antarctic and had nearly zero degree water temperature and the air temperature was the same. In those high sea conditions it wouldn't have been possible to put lifeboats of life jackets or life rafts in the water. As well as that, the passengers we sail with aren't the youngest anymore. I doubt any of us would have survived.

NARRATOR: So in dark, rolling seas they set to repairing the engine. All the time the waves were smashing against the windows and then they got lucky. The engine finally started.

REINHARD FISCH: Then for the first time I had hope we would make it. There are wonderful moments when you know everything works normally again.

:eek:

Mr. Tea

27-04-2009, 01:17 AM

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/freakwavetrans.shtml

:eek:

But then, as if out of nowhere, a spot appeared on the horizon - an island that shouldn't have been there at all!

http://www.paulmudie.com/images/rlyeh.jpg

craner

27-04-2009, 07:47 PM

The documentary. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ZstKoyc9I)

craner

28-04-2009, 12:18 PM

Aaaargh!

http://www.theartofdredging.com/rogue-wave.jpg

I'm getting a little obsessed with this topic.

craner

30-04-2009, 11:12 AM

So on Monday I spent a long time watching youtube clips of freak waves smashing into massive ships, which I found a bit weird, and slightly worrying. When I anxiously disclosed this information to a work colleague, he told me that he'd once spent a disturbing number of hours on youtube watching footage of air disasters. I think we both need CBT.

HMGovt

30-04-2009, 01:25 PM

So on Monday I spent a long time watching youtube clips of freak waves smashing into massive ships, which I found a bit weird, and slightly worrying. When I anxiously disclosed this information to a work colleague, he told me that he'd once spent a disturbing number of hours on youtube watching footage of air disasters. I think we both need CBT.

I've done the same with atomic bomb tests, I love the way the blast rebounds off the ground and pushes the rising fireball spinning into itself. Awesome.

Or the way the Baker test throws big old warships, probably packed with pigs and horses, around like matchsticks. Check out how the blast wave bounces off the destroyer to the right....

Topically, it counts as a freak wave video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCoxmru38Xs

Ahem.

mister matthew

05-05-2009, 09:05 PM

So on Monday I spent a long time watching youtube clips of freak waves smashing into massive ships

spent this afternoon doing the same thanks to your post! then reading about "rogue waves" on wikipedia.

have since decided that a life at sea is not for me. in fact not sure i'd risk a dover-calais/rowing boat in the park anymore :eek:

A megatsunami is defined as a wave reaching more than 100 meters (328 feet) in the deep ocean. The highest wave ever recorded occurred on July 9, 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska reaching a height of 516 meters (1,720 feet), 470 feet taller than the Empire State Building.

craner

06-10-2009, 05:03 PM

Good call on the wave, Scottie.

craner

06-10-2009, 08:49 PM

This has to be one of the oldest Dissensus threads still running. 5 years young! I'm proud.

craner

06-10-2009, 09:04 PM

For the 5th time on this thread, for Olde Time's sake, I never get board (bored! ha ha! geddit?) of this man or his Wave, and I dig his wife's impersonation of him, and for those who haven't seen it and don't appreciate the vast beauty of this sport, if it is actually "sport":

So on Monday I spent a long time watching youtube clips of freak waves smashing into massive ships, which I found a bit weird, and slightly worrying. When I anxiously disclosed this information to a work colleague, he told me that he'd once spent a disturbing number of hours on youtube watching footage of air disasters. I think we both need CBT.

I've done the same with air crashes. You can't get the extreme level of gore on YouTube now compared to when it first started but this video is good
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/As2l3TIiEnI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/As2l3TIiEnI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Caught part of a Cable TV show on rogue waves the other night,
German scientist analyzing sat intel from middle of oceans, scanning it for large waves and ...
zoom - there one was. Out there by itself, moving from place to place.
Got to be pretty damn big to see it from space ...

Not so far off from one account in the show I mentioned,
ships's captain described going down into the trough at the foot of the giant wave.
Talk about 'losing your *hit', hate to have to look up, up , up and see that mass above you ...
And coming out of the dark, not CG lit .

craner

18-03-2010, 09:33 PM

Some old Shipsterns footage - the pioneer days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDGrEBT4hF4

That is one terrifying fucking wave -- a real corkscrew. Over 15ft -- fuck me, unimaginable.

All told in this hilarious book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Walking-Water-Andy-Martin/dp/0749399147/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268952893&sr=1-3), that also documents Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo's epic exploits on the North Shore. I devoured this as a teenager, it was heroism to me, a mere Langland boy.

Ken was the Hero, Mark the doomed ninja, Ace Cool the Joker in the Pack.

craner

18-03-2010, 10:00 PM

Ken Bradshaw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUCSf_KJlg4) was THE big ommision from Riding Giants.

Just caught the end of "Endless Summer 2" - as expected , some great big wave action.
Stories of paddling between Corsica and Elbe ( over 80 nautical miles ) and windsurfing
BETWEEN Hawaiian Islands ... well the guy's got some arms on him.

scottdisco

21-03-2010, 04:12 PM

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0325/as_surf_xxl_nominee_630.jpg

As I keep stressing, this is in fucking Europe!

jesus wept.

is this the Med, or Atlantic?

if former, i am well and truly punched in the mouth. good grief. (would be swish for the latter, but even more so if it occurs in what is basically that giant duck pond.)

I mean, I would be absolutely shitting myself, obviously, but they're not steep, no hollow hard lip cracking you like a twig onto a reef, just a massive rush of water trying to drown you. Less scary than, say, Pipeline or Teahupoo! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhE498ef2Us&feature=fvw)

I saw Nazare make a name for itself (http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/video/2013/jan/29/garrett-mcnamara-100ft-wave-video) last week, although there is a bit of controversy about these "record" waves: they may be tall but unlike Jaws or Mavericks they don't actually break. You might drown, but you will not get smashed into tiny little pieces. (Yeah? I'd like to see you try it, pal.)

There's something so primal about images of people surfing giant waves. It's the sublime itself - human frailty vs. the blind, awesome power of nature. Except this time - MAN WINS.

trza

05-08-2015, 05:44 PM

In honor of Point Break remake this winter, and Bodhi sacrificing his life to the mother ocean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78s7DO5eehQ
vaya con dios, swayze.

trza

05-10-2015, 08:40 PM

Mother Ocean accepts another sacrifice, El Faro

The storm itself was moving slowly at just 6 mph. That meant the same area of water was being hit over and over by the winds — the perfect conditions for building monster waves.

As Joaquin slowed and strengthened, the El Faro was in trouble. The crew reported on Oct. 1 that the ship — which had two auxiliary power generators — had lost power, was taking on water and was listing at 15 degrees.

That was the last contact made with the ship. At the time, the center of Joaquin was about 175 miles out and maximum sustained winds had hit 120 mph. Overnight, they were howling at 130 mph and moving ever nearer to the El Faro's last known position.